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Second interview tips

Congratulations, you’ve passed your first interview! Now all that stands between you and that dream engineering job is a second interview. How do you approach it?

At a second interview, there are a few things you should expect. You will meet a HR representative, who will probably give you a tour of the company (and if not, ask for one if time permits) before you then have interviews with various members of the company. Finally, you will discuss salary, benefits and employment guidelines, as is relevant.

As you may have gathered, or already knew, a second interview is a hectic affair. Preparation is extremely necessary to make sure that you can effectively deal with the trials and tribulations of the day.

Prior to the second interview, make sure you extensively research the company and role you have applied for. You will be asked about how you will fit into the company and what you can bring to the table. To do this, it might help to review any notes you have taken during your first interview, highlighting the main areas that were evaluated during your previous experience.

Further preparation could involve making sure you can arrive on time and have suitable questions to ask (different to any asked in the first interview!) and have thought about how you could answer possible questions. Whilst this is fairly generic advice, it is guaranteed to make you more relaxed come the day of the interview.

Normally, the questions in this interview will be more based around your reactions to certain situations, the qualities you will bring to the position and how you will fit into the company on a personal level. Whilst these are harder questions to prepare for, you can put some model answers together to suit something that you are asked – along the lines of situations in which you have performed under pressure and similar scenarios.

A professional and personable approach should help you during a second interview. The fact that you got one is proof that you are in the running for the job, so should give you confidence. If you continue as you did before, with these bits of advice you should be a shoo-in. Good luck!